An unyielding Sheriff straddles wounded PDP

Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who has more or less held the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, by the jugular since May 21, 2016, is certainly not the “new sheriff in town”, with the mission to supplant the old ways with the new.

This sheriff is more like an undertaker hired to bury the erstwhile ruling party, the PDP. That has been the fears of some members of the party, such as Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, the former spokesperson to former President Goodluck Jonathan’s Campaign Organisation.

Following last Friday’s Appeal court’s ruling in Port Harcourt that affirmed Ali Modu Sheriff as PDP’s legitimate chairman, Fani-Kayode, had opined that the undertaker should be allowed to do his job.

He said: “It’s time for us to gut the PDP, leave its carcass for the treacherous mole called Sheriff and form a new party.”

The Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt, had declared Sheriff the authentic National Chairman of the PDP, following his appeal challenging the judgment of Justice Mohammed Liman of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, delivered on July 4, 2016, which upheld the appointment of Ahmed Makarfi as the Chairman, PDP National Caretaker Committee.

The Appeal Court, in a split decision, ruled that it was illegal to replace the Sheriff-led National Working Committee with the Makarfi-led caretaker committee.

Two out of the three-member panel of justices sided with the pro-Sheriff judgment, while the other ruled in favour of Makarfi’s faction.

While Justice B. G. Sanga and Justice A.A, Gumel ruled in favour of Sheriff, Justice T.S. Orji-Abadua ruled in favour of Makarfi.

Justices Sanga and Gumel, said the Port Harcourt convention where Makarfi was picked as caretaker committee chairman of the party was in contravention of a court order and the court would not close its eyes to such illegality.

However, Justice Orji-Abadua, in her dissenting ruling, upheld Justice Liman’s judgment, saying that the Port Harcourt convention was legal.

Apart from affirming Sheriff as the National Chairman of the PDP, the Appeal Court also nullified the party’s National Convention held in the Rivers capital and the National Caretaker Committee of the party constituted at the convention.

It could be recalled that the crisis that sparked the legal tussle started when Sheriff was removed as the national chairman at the Port Harcourt convention where the caretaker committee led by Makarfi was appointed.

The Makarfi committee was mandated to organise a fresh convention within 90 days to elect national officers of the party.

Since then, no fewer than four lower courts in Rivers State and Abuja had given judgements on the leadership crisis in the main opposition party in the country before the matter was brought before the Court of Appeal.

Sheriff, who appears to be wearing the toga of a spoiler, did not waist time after the judgement to burnish his image.

He shifted the blame to those he claimed to be playing “Godless politics,” and vowed to restructure the party to flush out the bad eggs.

Basking in the euphoria of victory, Sheriff boasted: “I will engineer a restructuring of the PDP such that characters like Wike and Fayose cannot find a way through to attain any position of prominence in our party in the future.”

He was referring to Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, both of whom initially backed his ambition to lead the party only to back out a few hours to the commencement of the botched Port Harcourt convention.

The two governors, he said in his reaction to the court’s ruling, “have brought shame and agony through the application of their crude and godless politics which is at variance with the principles upon which our founding fathers built our great party.

We must find a way to sieve things so that only men of character and integrity can come through for positions of responsibility at all levels of our political engagement in the country.”

“We must urgently steer the ship of PDP clear of the path of infamy which Wike and Fayose have brought our party, making Nigerians to mistake PDP as a training ground for thugs.

That is the urgent task we have. We cannot continue to advertise thug brand and expect Nigerians to take us seriously,” Sheriff said.

Makarfi in his own reaction at a press conference in Kaduna described the court ruling as a temporary setback. He said the PDP would overcome the setback politically and legally and would come out of it stronger and bigger.

He said: “We have utmost respect for the judiciary. So we are not going to take the laws into our hands. We might not agree with the judgement but there is a process and procedure if you did not agree with something.”

He added: “We will not allow opposition to be killed. We must strive to ensure that we survive for the sake of democracy and the country.”

Sheriff and Makarfi, former governors of Borno and Kaduna states respectively, have been engaged in a prolonged leadership tussle which has factionalised the party and caused many of its leaders to decamp to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

The Ahmed Makarfi-led, National Caretaker Committee of the PDP said the party would appeal the Court of Appeal Judgement affirming Sheriff as chairman of the party.

The National Publicity Secretary of the Committee, Mr Dayo Adeyeye, described the judgement as a “big disappointment, travesty and miscarriage of justice.”

He said, “The minority judgement is very sound in law, logic and fact. It gives us hope that we will have our day in the Supreme Court.

“Whereas the lead judgement left out the main issues and laboured unconvincingly to work to a preconceived answer, the minority judgement thrashed all the issues and upheld the judgement of the High Court in Port Harcourt, delivered by Liman on July 4, 2016. `

“We will certainly appeal to the Supreme Court. No reconciliatory effort will stop it. We need the Supreme Court to make a pronouncement on the issue, once and for all.”

Also speaking at a press conference in Abuja, the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Governor Fayose of Ekiti State, said the party believed in the ability of the judiciary to do justice to the matter

Fayose said the judgement was an assault on the will of the people. “If the people truly symbolize what a party is, then the machinations of detractors and the anti-democratic forces will not prevail at last.” he said.

He commended the minority judgement on the issue and expressed hope that truth would prevail. “Thank God we have another opportunity to seek justice at the Supreme Court, which I believe will not be delayed or denied.

“The party will appeal the judgement as we believe in the ability of the judiciary to do justice.” He said.

The Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Walid Jubrin, said he was convinced that the Appeal Court ruling would not threaten the party; it would rather bring the party members together.

He expressed confidence in the judiciary, but said that the party would go to any length to resolve the leadership tussle, adding that PDP members should be calm and not defect to other political parties.

He added: “I am sure that very soon everybody will smile. Those who are crying today will laugh. Those who are disturbed and worried will smile and PDP will one day become one party as we know it.”

Giving his own views, Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, asked PDP members and supporters not to worry over the ruling of the Court of Appeal, on the lingering party leadership tussle.

Ekweremadu said, “There is no cause for alarm. The party leadership will meet as soon as possible to take a decision on the best way forward.

“I enjoin party faithful to remain steadfast as we will surely emerge stronger from the present challenges. Those dreaming about the death of the opposition in Nigeria will have to sleep much longer, and still wake up to meet us much stronger because a vibrant opposition is the beauty of democracy,” he said.

The Ali Modu Sheriff- led Peoples Democratic Party was in a different mood. Unlike the Makarfi group, they described the Court of Appeal judgement as the confirmation of the will of the people.

Cairo Ojougboh, the Deputy National Chairman to Sheriff, said this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja that the Sheriff-led National Working Committee of PDP was still ready to dialogue with the Ahmed Makarfi-led group irrespective of the judgement.

He declared: “To us the judgment is no victor, no vanquish. Irrespective of the judgement our door is open to our brothers who unfortunately are in the other group. We promised not to victimise anybody but work together to reunite the party.”

Ojougboh added that following the judgement, Sheriff was ready to organise a credible National Convention of the party as soon as possible. He added: “The will of the masses is that the party should be handed over to the people and that is what Sheriff has come to do and he will never be distracted in achieving that.

“The PDP Chairman, Sheriff has directed me to assure our party members that the PDP National Working Committee would as soon as possible organise a national convention that would lead to the election of credible leaders of the party,’’ he said.

He, however, added that should the Makarfi-led group appeal the judgement, the Sheriff-led NWC would also be ready to meet them at the Supreme Court.

According to him, “all of us had earlier pledged to accept whatever is the outcome of the court judgment and I hope the Makarfi-led group will still respect that.

He continued: “Should they say they will proceed to the Supreme Court to appeal the judgment, we are also ready to meet at the Apex Court, but I expect them to respect their promise.’’

Ojougboh, who commended the party members and supporters for keeping faith with Sheriff, urged them to keep supporting him and his efforts to return the party to the grassroots.

Counsel to Sheriff, Prince Ajibola Oluyede noted the judgement was a vindication of an earlier ruling of Justice Abang of the Federal High Court on the illegality of the Makarfi faction.

He said: “Our preliminary objection raised before Liman J. which he rejected has now been upheld by the Court of Appeal and Liman J.’s judgment set aside. It is an all round victory for justice and truth.

“One can only hope that the PDP will take this as a clean slate to rebuild a party that can stand the test of time,” according to him.

The Makarfi led National Caretaker Committee which enjoys the support of the mainstream of the party and its organs, lost out because according to the Appellate Court, the party offended its own constitution in the way and manner it sacked the Sheriff- led executive and in the disobedience of court orders against the holding of the May 21 Port- Harcourt Convention.

Friday’s decision followed the earlier judgments by the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt that endorsed the action of the Port-Harcourt convention in enthroning Senator Makarfi and members of his National Caretaker Committee.

The judgment given by Justice Mohammed Liman also specifically barred Senator Sheriff from parading himself as the national chairman of the party.

Sheriff had upon that judgment appealed the decision to the Court of Appeal which last November after hearing the briefs from the counsels to the two parties reserved judgment which was given on Friday.

The lead judgment was supported by Justices Bitrus Sanga and Abubakar Muhammed.

Justice Abadua Orji in her minority judgment, however, differed saying that the National Convention being the highest organ of the party was sufficiently empowered to take the decisions in the best interest of the party adding that Sheriff having presented himself for screening at the national constitution could not turn around to abort the process.

Justice Sanga who read the lead judgment said: “The way the executive of the party was removed on May 21, it is clear that the provisions of the party’s constitution were not followed.

The appellants were not put on notice. The court will not close its eyes against illegality. Because of the failure of the party to follow its constitution, obey court orders the caretaker committee constituted is, therefore, a nullity. Parties are to maintain the status quo.

By the party’s constitution, a vote of no confidence can be moved on any officer but two months notice shall be provided to the secretariat which shall be circulated,” an action the court said the party failed to do.

He also flayed the conflicting judgments from the trial courts of concurrent jurisdiction on the same issues and questions, saying, “it is an abuse of court process when courts of the same jurisdiction are faced with the same issues and questions.”

Justice Orji in her minority judgment insisted that the national convention of the party was the highest organ of the party and that its decisions should be sacrosanct.

She said since Senator Sheriff turned up for screening for the convention of the party in Port Harcourt, he could not have turned round to suddenly postpone the exercise, stressing that he misconstrued his powers as acting National Chairman of the party.

According to her, Senator Sheriff deliberately absented himself from the May convention and that his duties at that convention were suitably carried out by the Deputy National Chairman of the party. She, therefore, upheld the outcome of the May 21 national convention.